Bruce Lee Castor, 95, of Worcester, Montgomery County, died July 29, 2025. He was just shy of 96 years old. He lived an active, happy, and healthy life, though he suffered from medical issues during his final few years.

Mr. Castor was born on August 26, 1929 in the Holmesburg section of Philadelphia. He was the middle of three sons born to the late LaRoy Northrop Castor and Miriam (nee McCartney) Castor. He graduated from Frankford High School as the class Salutatorian in 1947, Lafayette College in 1951 where he was a finalist for both a Rhodes Scholarship and a Pepper Prize, and from the law school of The University of Pennsylvania in 1954 serving on the Board of the Law Review and in 1953-54 as Editor-in-Chief. After taking the Pennsylvania Bar Examination in July of 1954, Mr. Castor was inducted into the United States Army on August 24. After basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and field training in counterintelligence, Mr. Castor was assigned to Stuttgart, West Germany as a counterintelligence agent. He often told stories of the fun he had with his army friends traveling Europe, playing golf, and drinking beer. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he never spoke about his actual work in the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC). Decades after his service, a letter arrived from the Department of Defense notifying Mr. Castor that his security clearance had expired.

Following discharge from the Army in 1956, Mr. Castor began his 48 year career as a lawyer with Ballard, Spahr, Andrews, and Ingersoll in Philadelphia. Beginning as an associate, he became a partner in 1965, managing partner in 1979, and the partner in charge of the Trusts and Estates Department from 1986 through 1996. He retired as a partner with the firm in 2004 at age 75. He focused his practice on estate planning, estate and trust administration, income, estate, gift, tax planning and preparation, and Orphans’ Court litigation. He served as co-trustee for a number of trusts with substantial assets and took an active role in the administration of those trusts. He frequently lectured on estate planning, estate and trust administration, fiduciary, income tax, and employee benefit law to bar associations in Pennsylvania and Delaware, and on the management of an estate practice for the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, of which he was a proud member.

Mr. Castor served for many years on the Board of Directors of the Presbyterian Home for Aged Couples and Aged Persons. He further gave back to his community as President of the Board of Directors of Meadowbrook School, a member the Board of Springside School, Secretary of Huntington Valley Country Club, and a Ruling Elder and Trustee of Abington Presbyterian Church.

An avid golfer, Mr. Castor played golf for pleasure, but also competitively. Beginning at Torresdale Country Club growing up, and later on the golf team at Lafayette College where he captained the squad, at Huntington Valley Country Club, and Pine Valley Golf Club in Clementon, New Jersey, where he was a member since 1973. His interest in golf took him across the country and around the world. For many years, he played in the Causeway Coast Invitational Tournament, better known as the Black Bush, sponsored by Bushmills Irish Whisky. The competition was played over five days at various golf courses in Northern Ireland. On many of those occasions, he played with his son, Bruce. Playing golf with his children (and later his grandson), either in formal competition or just for fun, was among Mr. Castor’s favorite things to do.

Mr. Castor married the love of his life, Diane Shaffer Castor, on May 28, 1960. The new Mrs. Castor was the daughter of Clyde H. Shaffer, the then-president of Breyer’s Ice Cream Company, and the granddaughter of former Mayor Thomas B. Smith of Philadelphia. The couple have two children, Bruce, Jr., and Edie Breyer Castor. Bruce is a lawyer in Philadelphia married to Elizabeth Pierce Castor since 1989, where the senior Mr. Castor served as best man at their wedding, and Edie, a long time private banking advisor in Montgomery County, presently based in Conshohocken with Bank of America, and a frequent golf playing partner with her father especially in competitive events. Mr. Castor also has two grandchildren, Bruce Lee Castor, III, a lawyer in the Pittsburgh area, and Alexandra Elizabeth Castor currently a homemaker in Warminster.

A retired member of the Bar of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Mr. Castor was a member of the American Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the Philadelphia Bar Association, and the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. Mr. Castor was also a member of Charity Lodge No. 190 F. & A.M. in Jeffersonville, and Lehigh Valley Consistory in Allentown as a 32nd° Scottish Rite Mason.

In addition to Diane, his wife of 65 years, his children and grandchildren, Mr. Castor is survived by a younger brother Dean Castor and many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by an older brother LaRoy Northrop Castor, Jr. in 2020. 

A visitation from 10 AM to 11:15 AM will be followed by a funeral service at 11:30 AM at Abington Presbyterian Church located on the corner of Susquehanna Road and Old York Road in Abington on Wednesday, August 13, 2025, with burial at Whitemarsh Memorial Park on Horsham Road in Horsham immediately following. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Mr. Castor’s name be sent to the SPCA at PO Box 222, Conshohocken, PA 19428. Funeral arrangements are by the R. L. Williams, Jr. Funeral Home, Inc of Skippack, PA.